Will a Religion Ever Rule?

Ok first off i wasn't sure where to put this so mods please move it if i have gotten it wrong.

Second i am not religious, this may not seem important to some but i thought i should mention it as it will no doubt be asked later.

Ok so here is my question for everyone, whether religious or not.

Does anyone think a single religion will ever prevail? I am not asking whether it should as that is a different question, i am simply asking whether a
single religion can ever come through. Could it be that one day the majority believed in Paganism, Islam, Judaism etc and then over time all other
religions disappeared?

I am not here to bash any religion, i need to make that clear. The question is as stated so please don't accuse me of being anti religion.

There is i am sure a religion that is already the majority but i mean a 'total' majority. The sort of majority that could never be countered if that
makes sense. So you would have a society of one religion and none believers.

All views welcome, but let's not turn this into an anti religous thread or target any particular religion as that would be avoiding the question.

I don't think so. People will always have different opinions about god and such, if only just to have a different opinion unfortunately. And some
will create a new religion because maybe they have a new line of thought or perhaps to control others around them.

And that would be everyone else's loss I say, religion is one of the most paramount issues for the world. I'm surprised that there are no
Christians coming here in droves to expound that one day we'll be united in Christ or some such thing.

Why would you list paganism first in your list? Also your avatar is pagan is it not? Then you say you are not religious? You got me confused
personally.

Anyways... you pose a good question and the best answer I can give is that the truth is the religion. If we find out the truth about our existance
then I think it can become a universal religion but there is many obstacles to finding the truth and one of them is personal perception itself.

Well i am agnostic. I have no problems with religion and i don't want to turn it into a religion bashing thread. I just wondered if anyone thought a
certain religion would prevail under peaceful means. Religions like paganism, druidism, buddhism and many more are all coming back into mainstream
life. The old religions like paganism never left, but they are becoming more and more common in the general population.

Originally posted by Mr Mxyztplk
...People will always have different opinions about god and such, if only just to have a different opinion unfortunately. And some will create a
new religion because maybe they have a new line of thought or perhaps to control others around them.

Much evidence around these days for this for sure! Also, Buddhism, as well as Islam to some extant, are only new to mainstream Western minds; they
have been around in the East. Well, now that East and West have met and are embracing (arms around the planet), perhaps hundreds of years in the
future there will be a blending of all (most?) various faith's common ideals, minus the dogma. One can only hope so. John Lennon "Imagine"d this in
a fashion.

Alas I don't see how this would be possible. With Buddhism saying there is no God, Judaism saying there is only one God, Christians saying that there
is one God in three, and finally we have Hindus saying we have millions of Gods. And that just a few of the religions found on this planet.
People love their religions to much to play give and take to come to any consensus's.
As much as it pains me to say I just don't see it happening.

This is my problem with a combined religion. Many religions are simply not compatible, as you said you cannot combine say christianity with buddhism
because one has a god and the other doens't lol.

So this was a main reason for asking the question, if any single religion preveiled as it were then which do you think it would be and why? Don't get
me wong here i am not asking people to get into the old arguement of "My gods bigger than your god". I simply mean logical reasons why a certain
religion might 'beat' the others to become the main religion.

Personally although i am agnostic i can respect buddhism in certain areas. I meditate simply because i am calmer after doing it. The buddhist religion
also states there is no god and so i can see that it would appeal to many people in our new science orientated society.

These are the reasons i can see it becoming a global religion, on the other hand maybe science itself will become the new global religion.

Ah when you put it like that...
I would like to place before you for consideration Wicca.
As far as I can tell there is no particular dogma or doctrine to fallow. It is essentially a make your own religion. Some Wiccans embrace none, one
or many God(desses). They embrace both science, nature, and the supernatural. So it's essentially a come one come all religion most likely to garner
support from any walk of life.

Yeah wicca is an interesting one but i understood that there were gods in wicca? I mean wouldn't that cause problems with any religion that doesn't
have gods in it? What about the number of gods in it as many religion have only one 'head' god.

I can understand that wicca might do well as a chance to be the head religion but i am not sure.

I wonder what the world would be like if the religions had gone and were replaced with a science based religion. Basically saying no god and the like,
what would this do to the world?

Hey good choice with science IR.
But I think to be a world embracing religion, science fails in some important areas. Science can only say that there is an intelligent designer to
the universe not in any way able to describe that designer, there for not allowing for a personal relationship that many long for in their deity.
Science also fails in the hope for an afterlife, the hope for more than “Just this”. As far as I can tell all science has to say on the
subject is that when you die your being ceases to exist. For many that just is not something compelling compared to heaven.
Finely off the top of my head, Science lacks purpose and adds no guidance to life. In science things just happen, no rhyme nor reason. Look at
the theory of evolution, it states that the strongest/fittest survive. No grand plan that makes one feel special, or part of some thing larger then
them selves.

As for my next choice as contender how about Islam.
Islam all ready embraces a large portion of the planet, and semi-embraces two other world wide religions in the form Judaism and Christianity. In
its true form it teaches peace and respect for yourself and fellow man.
Hope to hear back soon.
Mr Mxyztplk

Yeah i often think science fails in those areas. Although i don't think it is healthy to have unrational or unprovable beliefs, science as you say
cannot answer everything. Scientific method is really the only method we have for understanding the world, but it does not help us understand the
human spirirt for lack of a better word. Science doesn't lack purpose though, the purpose of science is to understand at a detailed level how our
universe works. The survival of the fittest though does make you part of the planet in a way as everything on earth is conected from an ant in Brazil
to a tree in the UK.

Islam is very interesting, as you say in it's true form it preaches peace, at the moment it seems to be the religion for causing terror, just as
christianity caused the crusades. This isn't the religion though, it is the people manipulating it fo their own ends. I think islam may be a good
world religion but i think that it would never be accepted globally as it will always be kept down by the other religions.

I think we were more on track with wicca maybe. Does anyone think that every human could maybe live without religion? Could we all accept that there
is not a god as in atheism or could we all accept to be agnostic and not try to put a label on what we think there is?

IR
When I stated that science lacked a purpose I meant it on a personal level, Gods plan for me if you will. In other words that God put me here for a
reason. And because of this vary reason I would have say that I must dismiss agnostic believes for this vary same reason.
So far Wicca is the best we've got.

...Now, to get back on track, I will express my opinion to the question posed; Will a Religion Ever Rule?

I would say that this is entirely possible. Considering that throughout history, entire geographic regions have been under the aegis or control of
one religion, it is quite possible that sometime in the future, a one-world, global religion could rise to dominance.

At one time, Europe was dominated and controlled by the Roman Catholic Church. All responsibility came from the Church; appointment as a Holy
Roman Emperor, the coronation of Kings, mandatory tithing and taxation, and the control and ownership of lands often came through the Church. The
Church even raised armies from amongst the crowned heads of Europe. Of course, the Church could wield a great stick in asserting it's dominion --
the salvation of one's very soul. After all, who would want to burn in Hell for all eternity? We can still see remnants of this geographic
domination.

Another example of a religion dominating an entire region would be Islam. Since it's beginning, Islam spread to control and directly influence
vast regions of the world. The influence of Islam has not been veiled by the passage of time. Islam is still asserting it's influence on over a
billion people throughout the globe but primarily in the Middle East. One does not have to stretch one's imagination too far to see how in countries
like Iran or Afghanistan, Ayatolahs, Imams and clerics control and dominate everything from international policy to day-to-day civic operation through
the implementation of Sharia Law. More than once, I've heard or read the intention of Islamic scholars expressing the aim of Islam as being the
religion or the controlling philosophy throughout the world.

Buddhism, though technically not a religion per se, was also a philosophy that was the dominant belief system for over a billion people. And, if
not viewed as religion, it has over a billion adherents. The same would also have to be said about Hinduism. Hinduism has over a Billion adherents
though this belief system is clearly a religion.

When I recognize that in history, great numbers of people and vast geographic areas were dominated, controlled or influenced by religion and, in
some cases (sic, Islam and Christianity) continue to do so, it is not difficult to imagine a time in the future when a one world , one religion
scenario could develop.

For my take, since religion is nothing more than a base of ideologies, I wouldn't say necessarily it's impossible but difficult. As the members
above have posted, everyone has their own opinion of how things are and why things are.

In the sense that a major religion in today's world (i.e. Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism) ruling all, high doubtable. But as a collective,
one day I feel we'll all accept the same things, but I see that far in the future when we don't hide truths from one another, when we're more
intelligent and developed and can accepted things for what they are.

So long as man kind doesn't develop some George 1984 world to live in, go extinct or revert its global civilisation to the stone-age times any time
too soon, it is inevitable that our knowledge of the truth will grow.

Knowledge of the truth unites. The only way power can prevent this is to distort it or hide it from people. Human religions as well as governments
have been guilty of this some of the time.
Look at Darwinism when it was first introduced many people refused to believe in it because it contradicted stories in the bible and other partially
or mostly false religions. However today most Christians accept evolution no mater how much their descendants less than a century ago would have
accused it or being wrong or blasphemous. Of course there will always be a “hardcore” of believers who don’t accept evolution but overall in our
society the truth has not been prevented from going its natural cause of uniting, and so that is exactly what it has done.

Today the uniting truth of religion faces at least two ways...
1. Ether there is an afterlife and or the existence of a God(s) or spirits.
2. Or there isn't.

I reckon there has been perhaps a surprisingly large amount of evidence in favour of an after life. And perhaps even more so for a grand creator(s) of
some kind.

The evidence for an after life is primarily ghosts. Yes a million things can cause people to hallucinate. But capturing them on CCTV in highly
secure buildings like Hampton Court, or when two national trust tourists see exactly the same ghost with no prior knowledge of its existence: Surely
that can’t all be in the mind?

But it’s also near death experiences (which government studies have been unable to conclude are purely medical).
Perhaps evidence for an after life even comes from mediums and other such persons who actually have some evidence to prove their claim of spiritual
ability.

And if there is a God then logic would indicate that within its world there's probably a spectrum of hiarchy of differences of some kind. And being
an afterlife you would have thought your position and hence your individuality in such a spectrum would be at least partly related to your performance
on earth. And because we know leaving the world a richer place for your existence than without it is a good thing, you would have thought the more you
achieve this the better it reflects on you.
We do not know if there is reincarnation. But logic tells us it might do better justice than just dumping people into a heaven or hell system.

Evidence for God(s) even without an after life is fairly good too. I think it lies in the way reality is such a beautiful thing. The fact that
in truth; morality exists quite solidly, or that all technology is as old as the universe (idea wise that is). These things exist regardless of
whether or not mankind knows about them, uses them or understands them. Therefore they do not exist because we happen to know about them as many
people claim.

Many things and other things like maths have a very strange material. Sometimes that material is expressed in the way maths works. You do not need any
matter or any human consciousness for the logic of maths to continue. Basically it is one of the few things that could exist without a universe. Or at
the very least I point out that it only takes one atom for one something to exist.

The design of life the underlining realities that drive are so well engineered. We take for granted that logic permits evolution to happen and a
million other things like it, but they are there and their design defiantly isn't human. It is the work of forces or therefore possibly forces that
act as entity(ies).

My personal belief has long being that supernatural forces influence the physical world through manipulating chance.

Discovering the Afterlife
One day mankind under some government somewhere will do proper research into the supernatural; but unlike previous times it won’t be classified as
top secret under military programs. We just need one investigating government to make its knowledge of the supernatural transparent to the public and
mostly for the public and all world religions will become united under a new religion, a religion of truth.
And though there will be people who reject it like there are still those who reject Darwinism; in time those people will become a minority of a
minority, just like those still reject Darwinism are.

It would cost like what? 2 Billion Pounds a year to investigate the supernatural. This is nothing. And if you came up with anything good the press
would love you. Initially (and politically) you could be sure you would come up with interesting stuff just by repeating some stuff from past military
programs.

Evolution seem's to be a religion of Anarchy to me. I mean, if I can trick you, steal from you, get you in your sleep, etc..... Then I win. My
gene's get past on to the next generation, which must become even more ruthless to survive. I guess there's a part of me that say's, "you're well
armed/trained, you would do well against most of these patsy's". That's the animal qualitie's of the flesh I believe.

I think there's something more to us than that. I for one can't remember where I was before I was born. That's disturbing to me
because I have a feeling that this little life is just so small in the face of Eternity and the Universe. Likewise, I feel like I'm not just going to
end when this body die's. I guess it's like the wind, not knowing where it comes from or where it's going.

Having said that, I personally asked myself, what was the major mean's of communicating information throughout most of human
history? It seem's to me that the written word has been the great communicator/preserver. So then I asked myself, What is the best-selling book of
all time? This of couse led to the Bible (still top's the list every year).

As I studied, I found that the book was being verified with more and more archeological find's. Something that wasn't happening
with the many god's and no god's religion's. I also found the chronology of event's quite interesting, again not found in other's.

One thing I've noticed about a good portion of the world's population is that they find their basic moral guidance from this root.
Judaism stop's with the Old Testament, Christian's embrace the New and Old Testament, and Islam claim's acceptance of both as well, as long as you
take their book first, which contradict's them

At any rate, I think the most important thing about Truth is that one seek's it. Second hand information and generalitie's don't
serve us well in this endeavor. Neither do laziness and out of hand dismissal's. Unless all side's have been THOROUGHLY studied, how can we come to
an informed decision.

So, my take is that the Truth will Reign on this earth, but not through mankind.

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